I’ll have some free time before and after the conference, so let me know if you’d like to hang out in Auckland during that period.

It’s not that it wasn’t a good bed, it’s just that it wasn’t designed for being moved around much. The joints were supported by thin dowels and highly-stressed bolts and… OK, it was never a very good bed. I was just fond of it because I bought it with Nicki shortly before we got married. Actually, I now recall that the central beam splintered and had to be repaired before Nicki died, so it can’t have lasted more than a couple of years before it started to come apart. A couple of years ago I gave up on the dowels and started banging nails into it, and I’m surprised it lasted as long as it has. But now it’s a pile of wood in the corner of my room. Rather nice rimu wood, though, so I’m trying to think whether I can recycle it for some other purpose.

So I went to look at bed shops this afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to this, as my usual experience of shopping for expensive items runs as follows.

Step One: I think about how I will use the item and formulate a short mental list of general requirements, that I’d expect to be fairly easy to meet.

Step Two: I visit some shops and discover that no manufacturer in the world has ever thought to combine even two of my requirements in an affordable product.

So, for example, when I first set out to buy a cellphone (some years ago now) my two basic requirements were that I could sync its contact list with my computer, and that it didn’t look stupid. My bar for stupidity was not high: if the 5 key was the same shape, size and colour as the 3 key, I was prepared to deem it non-stupid. It turned out that syncing your contacts was universally deemed to be a high-end feature only suitable for phones that cost more than $1000 and were riddled with features I didn’t want. Not looking stupid was not apparently a priority at any price point. After several weeks I gave up and bought the cheapest non-stupid phone I could get. Its user interface is a mess, and it can’t keep time correctly (its clock unaccountably loses about ten minutes a day), but I figured it would have to do until a reasonably-priced syncable non-stupid phone came onto the market. That was four years ago. I have had similar problems with stereos, shoes, furniture, home theatre components… and pretty much everything that costs more than a hundred dollars. This is not a problem with me. It is a problem with the world.

I can think of two cases in which I found it easy to buy an expensive item. The first was my house, for which my requirements were that it have four bedrooms, one with an en-suite bathroom, and be within fifteen minutes’ walk of where I walked. Bill the real estate agent found one just like that and took me straight to it, and it was just what I wanted. We looked at a dozen other places just to make sure, but that really wasn’t necessary.

The second such case occurred today while looking for replacement beds. I found exactly what I was looking for in the first place I walked into, a shop oddly named Not Just Beds that clearly sold Just Beds. It had some beds in the front, and a room in the back where the proprietor made the beds, and he could fulfill all my requirements (made of recycled rimu, no sticking-up bit at the foot end, connected by something more substantial than bolts and dowels). As with the house, I felt obliged to go and look at some other places, but I knew I wouldn’t find anything better.

I’d like to say I ordered my new bed right away, but actually I wandered around looking at beds I wasn’t interested in until after Not Just Beds had closed for the day. So I’ll have to go back another day.

More information here, from the redoubtable Karen Healey.

Now, as the little grey mouse of Time gnaws through the plastic shielding of Fate, sending the 747 of Destiny plummeting towards the church fête of Eternity, I see that it’s time to say goodbye.

Over the last few days, Obama has been attacked (by whom is controversial, and not really very important) for his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, a huge Chicago church that Obama attends. The churchgoers there are mainly (but not exclusively) black, and the culture derives from black churches. I’m not a Christian or African American, but I understand that it’s not unusual for the sermons to be political and provocative, and you’re not expected to agree with everything the pastor says. Wright is, by all accounts, a genuinely good guy, but there are a few bits and pieces of video from his long years of service that can be taken out of context and make it look like he hates America. Which is exactly what has happened.

The conventional wisdom is that when this happens to a politician, there’s not much they can do to fight it. People get their news from TV, and TV news only plays short clips of video. No matter how right you are, explaining the facts is going to take too long. They’ll play the out-of-context clip over and over, but they’ll never play your reply no matter how good it is. So you can’t afford to respond, all you can do is denounce the person who embarrassed you and try to move on. Not that that works either, because your enemies can keep talking about the clip, which gets it played over again. In short, there’s not much you can do except go and find your own short out-of-context clip to embarrass your opponents. If you have too much dignity for that, you’ll lose. At least, that’s the conventional wisdom.

In this speech, Obama does an end-run around conventional wisdom. He doesn’t denounce Reverend Wright, but praises his long history of good work. Then he goes on to talk about racism in America - not just that it’s a bad thing, but how it works in the minds of otherwise good people, including his own grandmother. Then he reaffirms that he’s not going to run a negative campaign, and goes out of his way to defend his opponents from a couple of spurious accusations. It takes forty minutes, and it got one live airing on CNN. It’s never going to play in its entirety on mainstream TV news, and there’s plenty in there that could be taken out of context in a ten-second video clip and destroy Obama’s campaign forever.

But… Obama’s campaign knew that the speech would go straight to You Tube, and most people would get it there instead of from TV news. So it’s worth the risk to be dignified, rational and thoughtful.

There was a famous debate in the 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy. When people were polled on who they thought had done better, the radio audience distinctly favoured Nixon, and the TV audience distinctly favoured Kennedy. If it had been 1950, that would have meant Nixon had won, but by 1960 television mattered more than radio, and Kennedy eventually won the election.* I think Obama has just expertly played a similar shift in public attention.

* OK, granted he only won by carrying the important demographic of dead people from Chicago, but the debate was still important.

After a few months my beard was long enough that I felt I ought to trim it for general tidiness, much as people get their hair cut even though they don’t shave it all off every time. I found that scissors weren’t the perfect tool, so I began to use a hair trimmer for the shorter bits of beard on my cheeks. This seemed perfectly fine for several years, until I became a teacher myself, when I felt obliged to buy a proper electric shaver to trim my cheek hair more closely than can be achieved with a hair trimmer. And I carried on with that until yesterday, when it occurred to me that even my electric shaver was still pretty hopeless, and maybe I should try one of those manual shavers that people use when they think of what they’re doing as actual shaving instead of my own mental model of the behaviour as trimming my beard really really closely.

So I bought one, and it turns out they’re really good. Who knew?

Step one is to get yourself a ticket. I always do this online, and check prices at Air New Zealand and Qantas before buying. You can put in the dates you want to fly and see what fares they have available at what times. Once you’ve chosen the flights you want, they’ll charge your credit card and send you an email with the flight details and a code. Print this out just in case you need to prove you booked (although it’s very unlikely - I’ve never had a problem).

Step two is packing. Most travellers are going somewhere for business for the day, so they’re not taking much more than a briefcase, and that’s what airlines plan for. If you have lots of stuff, you may be hit for extra baggage fees - I’m usually slightly over the weight limit because I’m carrying lots of comics, and I get charged about half the time, depending on how nicely I smile.
You’re allowed one bag to carry on to the plane, and one that you check in to go in the luggage hold. If you have anything delicate or expensive, you might want to keep it in your carry-on bag where you can look after it, but if that doesn’t work I wouldn’t worry too much. Baggage handlers in New Zealand are pretty good.
I usually pack a book to read in my carry-on bag, because airline magazines are very dull.

Step three is getting to the airport. Give yourself a bit of time before the flight so that there’s no rush if the queues are long. About an hour will be heaps. You’ll need to arrange for someone to drop you off - I usually take a taxi, but that’s cheap for me because I’m pretty close to the airport.

Step four is checking in. Find the counter for the airline you’re travelling on. If you’re early enough, you’ll be able to just bowl on up. If it’s closer to the flight time, you’ll need to queue. When you get to the counter you’ll need photo ID to prove you’re you, and they’ll check that your name is on their passenger list. They’ll weigh your bags, and put the one you’re not carrying onto the conveyor belt to go in the plane’s hold. Then they’ll give you a boarding pass, which will tell you your seat number, which gate the plane will be waiting at, and what time it starts boarding.
They also have automatic check-in machines, which take a credit card or a frequent-flier card and print your boarding pass straight off. You still have to check in your luggage though, so they won’t save you any time or hassle. They exist to save time for the people who only have a light briefcase.
If you want a particular seat, you can ask for it before they print your boarding pass. I like to look out the window, so I usually ask for a window seat. Some people prefer an aisle seat for long flights because they have more room to stretch their legs and they don’t need to bother other people if they need to go to the toilet. The flight to Wellington isn’t very long, though, so this won’t be a big issue.

Step five is waiting around. If you’ve allowed some time and everything’s gone smoothly, you’ll have a bit of time before the boarding time. I recommend the airport DVD shop - they often have good deals. Check the signs to see where your gate is, and start going there about fifteen minutes before boarding time.

Step six is security. They need to check that you’re not carrying dangerous things onto the plane, so they’ll run your carry-on bag through an x-ray machine, and ask you to empty your pockets of cellphones and wallet and such to also go through the machine. Then they’ll ask you to step through the metal detector to make sure you’re not carrying any weapons. If it beeps, they’ll need to give you an extra check with the hand-held detector to figure out what it saw - sometimes it’s a belt buckle or button or something like that. Don’t worry if they need to check you - it happens to everybody at some point.
I once had a pocket knife attached to my key ring, and forgot that I couldn’t take it on the plane. They sent me back to go to the airport post office and mail the knife back to my home address.

Step seven is going to the departure lounge. At this point, you’re all sorted out. Follow the signs to find your gate, and they’ll have some seats there to wait on. Departure lounges are very boring. When they get to boarding time, they’ll announce what to do over the intercom. Exactly what they do depends on what kind of plane it is, but usually they ask you to check your boarding pass for the seat number, and have a bunch of people with seats at the back of the plane to get on first, so that you don’t get in each other’s way too much. It’s no big issue if you queue at the wrong time - the worst that can happen is that they ask you to wait a bit for other people to go first. When they get to you, join the queue. They’ll rip off part of your boarding pass, and let you through the gate.

Step eight is finding your seat. There’ll be a steward or stewardess at the front of the plane to look at your boarding pass and tell you roughly where to find your seat. Most people just say hello and go past because it’s not too hard. Rows are numbered, and seats have letters across the plane.
Before you get in your seat, you can put your carry-on bag in the locker above you, or under the seat in front of you. I usually put it under the seat, so that I can open it during the flight if I need anything, but some people prefer to get out their book or whatever they want and put the bag in the locker so that they have more leg room.

Step nine is taking off. You are not responsible for this. A professional pilot will handle it all.

Step ten is a refreshing beverage. You might also get a tiny meal, depending on the airline and the time of day.

Step eleven is landing. Again, not your problem.

Step twelve is getting off the plane. This always seems to take ages, as everyone gets in each other’s way getting bags out of the lockers.

Step thirteen is finding your bag. Once you’re out of the plane, follow the signs to the baggage claim area. You’ll have to wait around for a while here while they unload the plane, but eventually your bag will turn up on the conveyor. In the very unlikely event that it doesn’t, they’ll have a little office you can enquire at. They also look after big things like surfboards and bicycles that won’t fit on the conveyor.

Step fourteen is getting from the airport to where you want to be. If you have someone to pick you up, no problem. Otherwise, you’ll probably want an airport shuttle, which is basically a guy with van who hangs around outside the airport to pick people up, only not as dodgy as that sounds. In Wellington they’ll charge you somewhere around $15 to take you to the central city, and they’ll drop you off wherever you ask. Essentially, they’re like a taxi but cheaper and slower because you have to travel with other people who aren’t all going to the same place. The drivers usually know the central city pretty well, but you’ll want to have the address you’re going to written down just in case.

The New Zealand Curriculum recognises that understandings about knowledge, and about how
knowledge is formed and acquired, are changing.